Catfishing and Phishing: The New Faces of the Old Con

    It is strange how scams have evolved from smoke-filled backrooms to the glow of a phone screen. In one of our first classes, we watched videos explaining how phishing emails mimic real companies down to the pixel. The message feels professional, the link looks familiar, and before you know it, you have handed over your information to someone in another country. Then there is catfishing, which hits closer to the heart than the wallet. It is deception that plays dress-up with someone’s loneliness.

What stood out to me most was not the technology but the psychology. Every phishing email and catfish profile works because it understands what we want to be true. Maybe it is that we have won a prize. Maybe it is that someone finally understands us. Just like Frank Abagnale in Catch Me If You Can, modern scammers do not have to be hackers. They only have to read people.

Watching the Spokeo and Norton videos made me realize how easily small details, like an urgent subject line or a friendly message from a stranger, can break through logic. What is unsettling is how normal it feels to interact with half-truths online. Everyone curates a version of themselves, so the line between self-presentation and outright deceit feels thinner than ever. The difference between an influencer and a scammer sometimes comes down to motive.

When I think about it, phishing and catfishing are only symptoms of a larger issue: how quick we are to trust what fits our expectations. We call it connection, but often it is projection. The internet did not invent deception. It only made it easier to believe in.